Elastic \rho' and \phi Meson Photo- and Electroproduction with Non-Resonant Background

Abstract

The backgrounds due to the direct diffractive dissociation of the photon into the $\pi^+\pi^-$ as well as $K^+K^-$ pairs to the "elastic" diffractive $\rho '$ and $\phi $ mesons production in electron-proton collisions are calculated. It is shown that the role of background and background-resonant interference contributions is very important in experimental distribution of $M_{\pi^+ \pi^-}$ in the $\rho '$ mass region. The amplitude for the background process is proportional to the $\pi$-meson - proton or K-meson - proton cross sections. Therefore, describing the HERA data, one can estimate $\sigma (\pi p)$ and $\sigma (Kp)$ at energies higher than the region of direct measurements.